Foyle's War

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Short synopsis: The Cage

Foyle’s investigation into the death of a nameless Russian leads to a mysterious military facility run by a respected Colonel with an impeccable war record.

But as Foyle makes enquiries, he realises the dead Russian was a spy with dangerous connections to British intelligence. Sam does her best to help husband, Adam, during his by-election campaign, but can’t help putting her foot in it...

Long synopsis:

An attractive woman, EVELYN GREEN, takes a mysterious phone call and quickly leaves her home without saying goodbye to her husband.

A bleeding man drags himself into a small hospital seeking help. A nurse calls for a doctor to help her but the man is already dangerously close to death. He utters some final words - ‘Ten Eye’ – and dies. DR ROSS thinks he has saw someone outside of the hospital in the woods but he’s not sure.

SIR ALEC MYERSON arrives at MI5 to take over from Sir William Chambers who has left in disgrace after being identified as a Russian spy. HILDA PIERCE brings him up to speed and they discuss Foyle’s assignment - an investigation looking into the death of several

Russian defectors.

VALENTINE and FOYLE are interviewing new applicants for MI5. FOYLE is keen on one applicant called DANIEL WILLIS but VALENTINE decides he’s not for MI5 because he didn’t go to a public school. FOYLE’s called to SIR ALEC MYERSON’S office where he’s told about the death of several high-ranking Russian defectors. MI5 safe houses have been breached, and VALENTINE was in charge of them, and FOYLE needs to get to the bottom of what’s gone wrong.

CHARLOTTE, a secretary in MI5, shows an apprehensive SAM to her new desk. FOYLE asks her to fetch the files on the Russian defectors so he can start his investigation.

ADAM and GLENVIL HARRIS are out on the campaign trail but not having much luck knocking on doors. They meet a woman, MRS GREEN, who tells them her daughter has been missing for three days; ADAM offers to talk to the police on her behalf. The girl’s name is Evelyn Green.

SAM has fetched the defector’s files for FOYLE. She tells him that a Russian has been found dead at a local hospital in an apparent suicide and she thinks it might be relevant. When FOYLE gets to the hospital, DR ROSS shows him the body of the dead man. It has one identifying mark – a tattoo which has been scratched out on his upper arm. Could he be Russian Gestapo?

PART TWO

MYERSON wonders if the dead Russian is connected to the death of the defectors in the safe houses. Also a woman, Evelyn Green, has gone missing from the Foreign Office and she knew the addresses of the safe houses and could be the leak they’re looking for.

CHARLOTTE and SAM discuss a new fashion – the coupon buster shoe. FOYLE interrupts their chatter and asks SAM to look for a copy of the NKVD insignia. He asks CHARLOTTE if she knows if the phrase ‘Ten Eye’ is Russian but she doesn’t recognise it.

Evelyn Green’s husband tells FOYLE about the strange disappearance of his wife. She was a Communist sympathiser during her university days but her husband denies she is still a member of the party. He thinks his wife may have met another man because she’d become distant recently.

SAM, ADAM and GLENVIL HARRIS discuss the political campaign. SAM thinks her husband should talk about the future and not hark back to the war to encourage people to vote for him.

At the hospital, a NURSE tries to stop several soldiers removing the body of the dead Russian. DR ROSS calls FOYLE to let him know and he agrees to come to DR ROSS’s house the next morning.

While SAM and ADAM eat their dinner, ADAM tells his wife about the disappearance of Mrs Green’s daughter. He wants to make a difference to people’s lives, and he asks if Sam would have the time to help him campaign in the following days.

The next day, FOYLE arrives at the Ross home but when MRS ROSS shows him inside they find DR ROSS dead in his basement office.

PART THREE

FOYLE looks around the basement for some clues as to what happened with a police officer. DS JONES thinks it is suicide but FOYLE isn’t so sure. JONES questions MRS ROSS who tells them she and her husband had been forced to divorce during the war because MRS ROSS was Jewish and they lived in Germany. They were to remarry next week – why would Ian Ross have committed suicide at this point in time? FOYLE discourages JONES from questioning MRS ROSS any further because he’s causing her too much distress.

SAM is with ADAM talking to local Peckham voters. They are sceptical about Labour’s policies but SAM manages to bring them around with her keen sense of humour and a joke about rationing. After leaving the meeting, SAM agrees to have her photograph taken with a loaf of bread.

Back at MI5, CHARLOTTE hands SAM a file and asks her to take it to Arthur Valentine. She notices it contains documents about an ‘Evelyn Green’, the woman missing in Adam’s potential constituency. She quickly hands the file to VALENTINE who is having an irate conversation on the telephone about someone ‘escaping to Berlin’. He makes another call before he’s interrupted by SIR ALEC MYERSON who wants to know how the woman from the Foreign Office managed to escape to Berlin. She was obviously a spy, and she wasn’t adequately vetted by MI5, MYERSON thinks.

VALENTINE asks CHARLOTTE to keep him informed about Foyle’s investigation. SAM overhears and makes a note to tell Foyle.

In the park, SAM tells ADAM about the secret ‘Evelyn Green’ file she has seen at work – isn’t it also the name of the girl from West Peckham he’s looking for? ADAM isn’t sure what to do and they agree to speak to Foyle.

At the hospital, a NURSE talks to FOYLE about the tragic death of Dr Ross. She tells him that Dr Ross had been called out to a car accident the day before at a place called Barton Hall – previously an army camp during the war.

FOYLE tries to gain entry to Barton Hall but he’s turned away in spite of presenting his Secret Service identification. He hears the soldiers saying they must inform ‘Tin Eye’, and he drives away.

PART FOUR

At home, ADAM shows SAM the morning’s newspaper. There’s a picture of SAM holding the loaf of bread from the previous day – the article has deliberately made it look like Sam has joined the campaign against government bread rationing. It’s an attempt to scupper Adam’s by-election campaign. SAM is devastated and leaves for work. GLENVIL HARRIS arrives with a plan to blacken the name of the Tory candidate but ADAM tells him he doesn’t want to play dirty.

FOYLE is talking to PIERCE and MYERSON at MI5 about the progress of his investigation. He wants to know if he can have access to Barton Hall which PIERCE tells him is a government listening station. PIERCE tells him that a woman, Evelyn Green, gave away the addresses of the defectors, but FOYLE is keen to find out who her informant was.

ADAM returns to the home of MRS GREEN to find out if her daughter has returned. MRS GREEN is still distraught, feeling something awful has happened to her girl.

While having dinner with SAM and ADAM, FOYLE is told about the disappearance of Mrs Green’s daughter, Evelyn, in Peckham. SAM tells him about an MI5 file she spotted at work about an ‘Evelyn Green’. FOYLE promises he will look into the matter but he’s annoyed with SAM for snooping in the office.

FOYLE finally gains access to Barton Hall and meets MAJOR JAMES MCDONALD and LT. COLONEL HARRY GALT who’s in charge of the listening station. It’s apparent to FOYLE that Barton Hall may not be all that it seems, although GALT and MCDONALD deny ever having met the dead Russian found at the nearby hospital. Waiting outside, SAM is winked at by a motorcycle courier. She sees a small bow from a woman’s coupon buster shoe lying on the ground. Driving away, FOYLE tells SAM that the ‘Ten Eye’ the Russian spoke as his dying words probably refers to the monocle that Galt wears – “Tin Eye”. Galt must be lying about having not met the dead Russian.

PART FIVE

FOYLE, ADAM and SAM visit MRS GREEN at her home. She tells FOYLE that her daughter works at a Haberdasher’s called Leytons – not the Foreign Office. She gives them a photograph and it shows her daughter wearing a pair of coupon busters from which Sam found the bow previously. They realise there are two Evelyn Greens – one is in Berlin, and the other is at Barton Hall.

VALENTINE tells FOYLE about Colonel Galt and his background in counter espionage – FOYLE wonders why someone like this would be working in a listening station but VALENTINE is not forthcoming with further information.

FOYLE meets DANNY WILLIS again and asks him to break into Barton Hall to look for Mrs Green’s daughter. FOYLE then meets with MRS ROSS who tells him that her husband was working on some blood-tests relating to his research on tick bites. She is afraid that now DR ROSS is dead she is going to be deported to Germany. She wonders if her husband did take his life – he blamed himself for his wife’s internment during the war in a concentration camp.

DS JONES is telephoned by FOYLE who wants to know about a car accident involving a military vehicle near Barton Hall. FOYLE returns to Barton Hall and we find out that it was MCDONALD who crashed his car, and DR ROSS attended the accident. FOYLE can see MCDONALD scratching an infected wrist. FOYLE asks him why MCDONALD and GALT are lying about knowing the dead Russian. MCDONALD decides to tell the truth; the Russian was trying to break into Barton Hall and Galt had him tortured, paranoid the Russian might be a spy. MCDONALD was taking the Russian to a military hospital when he made a run for it and escaped. The Russian’s name was Palenko.

Back at MI5 HQ, SAM sees the same motorcycle courier whom she saw at Barton Hall. She tells FOYLE and he asks her to fetch the files on Colonel Galt and Major McDonald immediately.

PART SIX

DANNY WILLIS breaks into Barton Hall and finds Mrs Green’s daughter, EVELYN, locked in and frightened in a basement cell. It’s obvious to him that Barton Hall is being used for interrogation purposes. DANNY grabs EVELYN and together they escape, although they’re pursued by MAJOR MCDONALD and his soldiers. GALT is furious with MCDONALD for letting another prisoner escape. He thinks the whole Barton Hall operation is now be threatened.

EVELYN is taken to Sam and Adam’s home where she tells them what happened. She was walking to church when some policeman arrested her and put in her a van with no windows. Taken to remote house in the countryside, she was imprisoned in a cell. While there she saw a man in a uniform knife another prisoner. DANNY tells FOYLE that Barton Hall is a psychological interrogation unit probably run by the Secret Service. Evelyn was probably arrested by mistake and taken to Barton Hall.

ADAM tells SAM they should let MRS GREEN know her daughter is safe. He reminds SAM it’s polling day the following day.

The following day at MI5, CHARLOTTE tells FOYLE that the files he’s requested on Galt and McDonald are restricted. FOYLE confronts VALENTINE and asks him why his investigation is being obstructed. VALENTINE comes clean and tells him there was a mix up – the wrong Evelyn Green was picked up by MI5 and he’s worried Myerson will use Valentine as a scapegoat for the mistake. He tells FOYLE that the address for Evelyn Green was supplied by Barton Hall.

MRS GREEN is reunited with her daughter.

FOYLE returns to Barton Hall to tell GALT that he knows Barton Hall is not a listening station and that it could be connected to the murders of Dr Ross and Palenko. GALT is honest with FOYLE about the interrogation techniques he’s developing at Barton Hall. FOYLE asks him if he followed Palenko to the hospital the night he died, but GALT refuses to give him an answer. It’s clear FOYLE thinks it was GALT who murdered Palenko.

PART SEVEN

ADAM is at the polling station with GLENVIL HARRIS.

FOYLE revisits MRS ROSS and tells her DR ROSS didn’t commit suicide after all. She shows him the blood-tests that her husband was working on before he died, and tells him that he was treating someone with Tick-borne Encephalitis. It’s a disease common to parts of Europe, but not Britain.

CHARLOTTE gives FOYLE the files he’s been asking for on McDonald and Galt.

COLONEL GALT, PIERCE, VALENTINE and MYERSON are having a meeting. GALT is furious and thinks Foyle is behind the security breach at Barton Hall. MYERSON himself is angry that the wrong Evelyn Green was picked up and no one at MI5 was informed. Suddenly, they’re interrupted by Foyle’s arrival. FOYLE remains tight-lipped about the whereabouts of Mrs Green’s daughter when they ask him. He tells him that more importantly, they have a mole at Barton Hall – McDonald. McDonald killed Palenko. McDonald’s file confirms what FOYLE is saying is true – inside there is photograph of McDonald with Evelyn Green – the Foreign Office spy who escaped to East Berlin.

ADAM is running neck and neck with his rival in the by-election. It’s going to be a close call.

FOYLE and GALT race to Barton Hall to confront McDonald. He has a gun but the Encephalitis is taking hold of him and he’s weak. FOYLE tells him he’s seriously ill and needs medical attention. He killed the only man who could tell him he was ill – Dr Ian Ross. MCDONALD killed Ross thinking the doctor had recognised him when he followed Palenko to the hospital.

MCDONALD confesses to FOYLE that he was at university with Evelyn Green and they were in love. He recruited her as a Soviet agent – both sickened by the British class system. He killed Palenko because he was going to betray the cause and Evelyn Green – his contact at the Foreign Office. Evelyn Green was feeding Palenko the addresses of the MI5 safe houses – Palenko was an assassin sent to Britain to kill Russian defectors.

MCDONALD tells FOYLE that Galt had ordered him to arrest Evelyn Green, but instead he fed MI5 the address for another Evelyn Green, hoping to buy his comrade and lover time to escape the country. He escorted Evelyn to Berlin and once she was safe, quickly returned to England to kill Palenko. But Palenko escaped to the hospital where Dr Ross treated him. MCDONALD tells FOYLE he is sad that he won’t live to see the day that Communism will prevail. GALT is disgusted by his colleague’s betrayal. FOYLE leaves the room and overhears a shot ring out – it’s not clear if MCONDALD has shot himself, or if he was shot by GALT.

The by-election result is read out and ADAM wins. GLENVIL HARRIS and SAM are delighted. SAM quickly grabs a moment with ADAM and kisses him tenderly.

Back at MI5, FOYLE tells MYERSON that Evelyn Green does not want to talk about her experience at Barton Hall so there is no need to silence her. MYERSON is pleased and he tells FOYLE that he wants Danny Willis to apply for a job in MI5. FOYLE is perturbed that MYERSON won’t shut down Barton Hall – he can’t agree with the methods used there, but MYERSON tells him the work has saved the lives of agents in the field. He wants FOYLE to remain with MI5 and FOYLE agrees but on one condition – he wants MRS ROSS to be given leave to remain in England. MYERSON agrees.